Being forced to sleep in another room because of her concern for me was worse than sleeping on the floor. I needed her near me. I found myself getting up every twenty minutes for the past three hours to check and make sure she was sleeping soundly.I stared aimlessly at the ceiling, going through the various scenarios of how her emotions could play out, wondering how she’d deal with what happened to her. Grace had managed to catch me leaving Laurel’s room and enlightened me that Laurel was determined to move forward, wanting to put this behind her and get on with her life. I knew her best defense was usually to ignore things and move on, hoping it didn’t happen again, but it nearly did! She came so close to being raped again by this monster. How could I get her to see that she was still in danger and, more importantly, how did I convince her to move in with me so I could watch over her?The clock was heading towards 5:00 a.m. and my eyelids were finally starting to feel heavy. I was just about to succumb to sleep when I heard her scream in terror.
